Old secrets, new memories
by sorafallenangel11
Summary: GOING ON HIATUS. Hidden village, hidden secrets. What if there was a big one, hidden in plain sight, and only a few people saw it? What if Konoha needed help? And the only person able to couldn't be found? - because they don't know who can. FemNaru ItaNaru Onesided SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1

chapter 1

Hello readers! New story, so hope you all enjoy. This is just the beginning, and I hope you enjoy it all!

** Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto or the characters.

He jumped over the buildings, searching, his red eyes scanning the alleyways, knowing that was were she would be. He heard the screaming then, the loud cries coming soon after. Following his ears, he sprinted over a few more roofs, before jumping of, landing swiftly on the ground, before shooting off in the direction of the slowly quieting whimpers. Stopping aruptly, he spun back around, took a few quick steps back and looked into the alleyway he had stopped in front of. Seeing what he was looking for, he dashed into the alleyway, using his activated sharingan to navigate the dark path. He found her quickly, shivering because of the cold, surrounded in shadows. He stooped down, bending his knees so he would be able to get a better look at her. She was all beaten up, bleeding everywhere. She had a scratch creating a ring just below her elbow on her left arm, as well as one running from her shoulder to her mid-forearm. She had bruises litterd all over her body, her hair was matted due to the blood covering most of it and her already nearly non-exsistant clothes were in tatters, great big rips in them and large chunks missing from both her shorts and t-shirt.  
"Nari, can you get up?" he said, wondering if he would have to carry her. She shook her head, whimpering slightly as the  
movement involved moving her neck. He frowned, not yet seeing any injury to her neck, but that might be due to the fact that her head was down and her hair was covering from the shoulders upwards, both covering up his view of her neck. He reached forward, tilting her chin up carefully with one hand and pushing her hair back at the same time with the other. What he saw almost made him gasp. There was a thick red line going across her throat and towards the back of her neck. He also saw the begginings of a bruise on either side of the line and a faint scar appearing in the middle of the red. He knew what had happened, it was pretty obvious - she had been strangled with rope, probably by the villagers, and then with ninja wire. He sighed, ashamed of his village. Standing up, but bending down from the middle, he placed his hands under her armpits and lifted, making sure to be gentle. Still being careful, he placed her on his hip, noting how her legs were the best of, with just a few bruises and a twisted ankle. " Ok Nari, just hold still and we'll get you looked at as soon as we can, ok?" He took her silence for a yes and looked around before carefully jumping onto the nearest roof, making sure to keep a firm but gentle grip on the girl.

He got to his destination in less then a minute. He knocked on the old wood door, entering as soon as he heard the murmured 'come in'. He opened the door with his spare hand, and walked briskly into the office, stopping before the man seated behind the desk.  
"You found her then, Itachi?" The old man stated rather then asked. Itachi nodded.  
"I found her in an alleyway near the main street, Hokage-sama" He would of bowed, but knew that it would of meant josteling the girl still on his hip, and in the process, hurting her. The hokage nodded, taking a few puffs of his pipe,  
"I see. Do you have any idea as to what happened to her. "  
"I think that she was ambushed, as you know how fast she is. She was, most probably, attacked by the villagers, and then ninja came along to help out. There are injuries that are caused by objects that you can probably find in most households, and there are injuries that look as if to be caused by kunai and shuriken. She also appears to have been strangled by rope, and then ninja wire - therefore leading me to the conclusion that villager attacked first and then ninja" Itachi said, rather quickly, as he knew that the girl on his hip needed medical attention, no matter what was inside her. Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded once more, thinking over the information the Uchiha prodigy just told him. He snapped his fingers less then a minute later, summoning two ANBU to his side. He looked at the one with the cat mask  
"Go get Ookami and tell him that we found Nari" The Anbu nodded disapearing in a puff of smoke a second later. The hokage looked to the other Anbu, this one with the mask of a crow "Go and get healer Hatake" This one also nodded and disapeared in a puff of smoke. The third then looked over to Itachi, taking note of the way he was standing, as if he had been carrying the child his whole life - he looked uncharacteristically worried, which the third knew he never did. He was also holding her properly, the way an older brother would, and although the hokage knew he had a younger brother, he also knew that the older Uchiha almost never held the young Sasuke, and when he did looked most uncomfortable. They stood/sat there for two more minutes, until the both of them heard two sets of frantic feet coming down the hallway. Barley seconds after, the door was flung open by a hysterical Kakashi, looking just like the wolf his codename implied. Behind him was a woman, in her early twenties, with light brown hair and dark green eyes. Her eyes held the same amount of worry that was written all over her face. She saw Itachi standing there with a small girl with matted red hair and dulled blue eyes. They were both looking at her, The boy with slight relief and the girl with a scared glint in her eyes. The womans eyes softened for a second before they hardened again as she thought of the punishment she and her husband were going to inflict on the people who did this to the little girl.

She took a step forward, pushing her husband out of the way, before rushing over to the little girl, trying to make it obvious in her body language and facial expresions that she wasn't going to hurt her. Itachi walked over to the hokage's desk and set Nari on the desk after the man had cleared a space. The healer, Midori Kode-Hatake then kneeled infront of Nari and cheked her injuries, healing them as they went along. It would seem her tennant had used to much chakra healing her as the villagers beat her, and couldn't heal her. She healed her sprained ankle and most of the bruises on her legs, but she couldn't waste her limited chakra on things that would go in a week or so. Midori then moved onto Nari's torso, lifting up the sorry excuse for a shirt as she went along. She half-healed the slash - that was made by a sword - across her stomach, leaving a scar, as she moved onto the large bruise just below her heart. After healing that, she healed the bruises on her arms, but as her chakra supply was dwindling, she moved onto the one that needed the most attention - Nari's neck. Using as little chakra as possible, she healed some of the bruises around her kneck, but couldn't do much for the scar the ninja wire left. Using the very last of her chakra, she lessened the pain the young girl would no doubt be feeling. When she was done, the three males in the room sighed, relived that the little girl was looking better. Nari looked up then, her eyes seeking the one comfort she had always known - her precious people. She looked right at Itachi then, slowly lifting her arms, silently saying she wanted to be held. The young boy walked forward straight away, once again putting his hands under her armpits and lifted her up, immediately putting her on his hip. Nari looked around the room once more before snuggling her head in Itachi shoulder sighing tiredly. She fell asleep soon after, and after thinking that she'd be more comfortable on the couch that was situated at the back of the room, Itachi started walking over to the dark blue furniture. He glanced at her when he was halfway across the room and saw how cute and peaceful she looked, and decided against putting her down - she must be comfortable enough if she was looking like that. Sighing, Itachi looked over the other three occupants of the room. The hokage looked tired, but you could tell by the look in his eyes that he was ashamed of his village, the one he, and many before and him, had protected with their lives, and they were hurting the one of the people who saved them four years ago. Kakashi and his wife, Midori, looked about ready to go out and kill anyone who had an invovment in this - whether they were the ones beating her or watching, or someone who just walked past the alleyway Itachi found her in, ignoring the strangled screams and whimpers coming from the shadows. The ten year old Jonin sighed once again, wondering what they were going to do. It had seemed that the hokage had read his mind as he started talking then.  
" We need to find a way to stop this" The sandaime began "The only way I can think of is dress her as boy. I know it may seem ridiculous, but for some reason, people seem to think that girls are easier to beat. If she dresses as a boy, maybe the beatings will die down." He felt worried. He was pretty sure that the physical abuse would die down, but not the verbal, or the shunning that she would most likely go through growing up. " I'm not sure if it would help much, but you could all still see her, and to make sure, we can have you three, and some other trustworthy people train her." The sandaime countinued.  
" Who though, apart from us three?" Kakashi asked, gesturing to himself, Midori and Itachi with a sweep of his hand. The hokage, as well as the others though for a second then Itachi spoke up  
" How about Anko? She's proven herself to be trustworthy? And maybe Ibiki? I know they can both be scary, but we need to prepare her for the real world, don't we?" The Hatake's looked at him as if he was crazy, and then glared at the hokage as if daring him to agree. They were all shocked when they saw him contemplating it. He then nodded, seemingly agreeing to Itachi's questions.  
" Yes, I think you three plus Anko Mitarashi and Ibiki Morino will train Nari to her very best. We will dress her as a boy, only a select few knowing she is really a girl. The others will soon forget about her. She will also be taken out of the village on training missions, with one person, or a group of you, to see the outside world and meet new people. Now, Midori, will you go and wash Nari up, and then we can call Anko and Ibiki in here and discuss her training?" The hokage replied to Itachi, ending with a question to Midori. Midori nodded, carefully took Nari out of Itachi's arms and walked out of the door muttering a quiet 'bye' on her way out. The occupants left in the room looked at one another, before the two standing sat down heavily on the spare chairs, sighing. The hokage sighed once more before snapping his fingers and summoning the same two ANBU members as last time. They both bowed to Itachi and Kakashi, before turning to face their hokage. Looking at the one with a crow mask (now named crow) he said  
" Bring me Anko Mitarashi immediately. He nodded, leaving in a puff of smoke. Turning to the one with a cat mask (now named cat) the third said " Bring me Ibiki Morino now" Cat also nodded, leaving in the same fashion as crow. They both appereared three minutes later and once there, after being told to sit down, the Sandaime hokage told them what they had all agreed on and what was going to happen, telling them their part in it.  
Once all the explanations were done and the two Jonin had agreed, they heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall, one much lighter then the other, so they deduced that it was Midori and Nari coming back. When the door opened they saw a laughing Midori and a smiling Nari, her long red hair clean and falling down to the top of her thighs and her sky blue eyes sparkling happily. Once they stepped into the room, Nari instantly spotted Itachi and ran over to him, jumping on his lap and getting comfortable. Once she was still, Itachi wrapped his arms around her stomach, bringing her closer to him. The other laughed when she ran over to him, and seeing the protective gleam in his eyes, laughed even more, knowing for a fact that no one will ever be able to touch her with harmful intent ever again.

2 years later

Six year old Naruto Uzumaki sat at the back of the classroom on the first day of the acadamy. On his right side, he was next to a blue haired girl who had the famous eyes of the Hyuuga clan. On his left was wierd looking boy with black hair in a poytail, that stuck up at the back like a pinapple. He was leaning forward on his arms and had his eyes closed, snoring quietly. When the teacher walked in, slamming the door behind him as to wake up anyone who was asleep or daydreaming - and there were quite a few of those - the boy woke up, sat up straight, and then looked as if he never woke up. As the teacher introduced himself as 'Iruka-sensei' he looked around, taking note of some of the students he would be teaching for the next six years or so. He saw Sasuke Uchiha sitting in a corner, surronded by giggling girls, a blonde haired blue eyed girl sitting next to a pink haired green eyed girl, the Nara genius, the heiress to the Hyuuga clan and Naruto Uzumaki. He sighed - he had a weird batch this year.

It was a week later the hatefull villagers saw three people walking down the street. They were talking animatedly - well, two of them were. Hinata Hyuuga was talking with one of her new best friends, Naruto Uzumaki, whilst her other friend, Shikamaru Nara walked on the other side of her, his hands behind his head, adding in a few comments every now and then. Over the past week, after the first day, they had become the best of friends, one hardly seen without the other two. Naruto was thinking of telling them his secret, but wasn't sure if the hokage would agree. He would ask first, then tell them. He would, they were his first freinds his age. He would beg if he had to.

It took a month, but here they were, all standing there in the hokage's office. Not only were there the three friends, but Itachi Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Midori Hatake, Anko Mitarashi, Ibiki Morino and, of course the sandaime hokage. Hinata and Shikamaru were slightly scared, as they had never seen most of these people before. Once everyone was comfortable, some standing, such as Kakashi, Midori and Shikamaru, the others sitting - as there was only two seats, Naruto was sat on Itachi's lap - the acadamy students couldn't help but think it looked a little weird. The hokage started then, telling the acadamy students a story of a little girl with something in her, who was beaten because she was thought of as a villain, but in fact, was a hero. Hinata and Shikamaru were so intruged, they didn't see the sad faces on the other people in the room. The hokage then went on to explain how they came up with a plan to protect her from the villagers, and how they got four Jonin and a med-nin to train her in all the ways they could. Shikamaru was slowly putting the pieces together, whilst Hinata sat there wondering how this was going to end. The hokage sighed, knowing this was the moment of truth.  
" This girl, Nari Namikaze, you all know, but as someone else. And you know her as Naruto Uzumaki, and she is the Kyuubi vessel." Hinata and Shikamaru then watched as Naruto was engulfed by a cloud of smoke, and in his place was a girl with long red hair in a high ponytail and slightly paler blue eyes then Naruto. The people who already knew sat there wondering what was going to happen. Knowing that Nari was worried, Itachi wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her closer to him so that when she leaned her head back her it rested against his chest. He was going to protect her, no matter what happend to him.

* * *

This is the new, updtaed version - I've re-written all three chapters so it makes more sense. Hope it worked! Incase your wondering, Nari is Naruto - their the same person.

It's going to end up Itanaru, with a few other pairings on the side.

R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Second chapter, hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto (unfortunately)

* * *

Naruto stood in the hokage's office, Hinata and Shikamaru by his side. All three of them were nervous, as he hardly ever actually called them to his office - they usually just barged in (well, Naruto did, the others followed) and asked him what he was doing, and then ended up doing something for him anyway. Many people wondered how Naruto knew what was going to happen or what was going to be asked before it happened - it was a regular occurence for the trio to appear when someone needed them without them actually being called. The three academy students looked worried, the sandaime looking at them, his eyes covered by the shadows his hat created. His mouth was set in a worried frown, his mind clouded in unease for the children standing in front of him - and his village once they found out what happened.

"Nari, Hinata, Shikamaru change back." The third hokage spoke for the first time since they entered his office seven minutes ago. The three almost genins nodded, performing a couple of hand signs in quick succession, before all three children were surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. When it had cleared, instead of the blonde-haired, sky blue-eyed boy, there stood a girl with long red hair in a high ponytail, with pale blue eyes. She wore mesh armour with sleeves that ended at the elbows and ended just above the knees, with a light blue, sleeveless T-shirt and dark blue, almost black, slightly baggy shorts that ended at mid-thigh over the top. She also wore black fingerless gloves, a weapon pouch was attached to her left thigh and another pouch was on her left bicep, as well as black ninja sandals. Wrapped around her waist was a black cloth and over that a chain belt, and hanging from that was seven small scrolls. On her back, secured by the cloth, was a katana, sheathed in a black scabbard, with a blue handle. Hinata, the Hyuuga reject, had long (once short) blue hair in a hime-stlye cut and pupil-less, lavender tinted eyes that showed she was a member of the Hyuuga clan and had a pale blue - the same colour as Nari's - tint to them. She, the same as her female best friend, had mesh armour on that ended at the elbows as sleeves, but ended just below her knees. Over that she had a dark blue, sleeveless t-shirt, with light blue shorts that ended at her knees . She also wore black ninja sandals, a weapon pouch attached to her hip, with two tanto crossed over above the pouch, secured by the same black cloth as her female companion around her waist. The only other male in the room had his hands thrown uncaring behind his head, his black hair - which was usually in a pineapple style - was down, and nicely layered, and hung down to past his shoulders, making him look slightly feminine. His brown eyes were slanted lazily, but like his blue haired friend, his eyes had a blue tint to them, the same colour as his female companions. He wore a mesh T-shirt and an azure sleeveless t-shirt, as well as dark blue shorts and the same black ninja sandals as his friends. He had a thin black cloth around his waist, with a ninjato tucked in at the back, as well as a weapon pouch on his right thigh. All three pairs of eyes held curiosity, but it was quickly overwhelmed by worry, as the old man hardly ever called them to his office together unless they were going on an unofficial mission with one of the jonin(basically a training mission), were in trouble(which happened annoyingly often) or someone had died.

The hokage sighed, wondering how to tell them, fearing for not only his own life but theirs and others as well. He needed to tell them, and he needed to tell them now. He was just glad he had decided to tell them first.

"I know you must be wondering what has happened, and I will tell you, I am just unsure as to how" he paused, expecting one of them to interupt, but none of them did. "We found... a body this morning, by the west gate" Now he watched as their eyes widened, their thoughts showing clearly on their faces - they were going through who could be dead that concerns them. He sighed once more "It was the body of" He took a deep breath "Midori Hatake."

The third hokage watched as their eyes widened even more - if possible - as their brains fully caught up to what he had said. Then, rather amusingly, they all shook their heads at the same time, not wanting to believe it, but they all knew that the sandaime wouldn't lie to them about something like that. The hokage listened as low murmurs came out of their slightly parted lips, the most common being - ' I am going to kill whoever did this', or 'they are so dead'. But the comment that scared him the most came from Hinata ' Who's going to tell Kaka-nii-san?' All the murmurs stopped after that comment, wondering as well. The hokage sighed, dreading the moment he would have to tell one of his most prized Jonins that his wife was killed this morning - he was hoping that the academy students would be here when he broke the news. Hinata, Nari and Shikamaru looked at him, telling him with their eyes that he would be the one to tell him. He sighed for the third time since they entered the office - his hopes were dashed, well, some of them, the hope that they would be the one's to find the person or people who did this was still intact - he knew they would stop at nothing to hunt down this monster.  
Seeing the look in their eyes, the sandaime decided to try and lighten the mood - the atmosphere of the room had changed dramatically from concerned and anxious to cold and filled with killer intent in less then a second.

"So, you have your Genin test today? Do you think you'll all pass?" The third knew it was a stupid question as he knew they would all pass, but he wanted to know if Nari was going to act stupid, as she did when she was disguised as Naruto - and failed the test three times. They all sighed simultaneously, showing how much time they spent around each other, even if it wasn't in the public eye. There expressions changed then, mischievous smiles breaking out across their faces, but they didn't quite reach their eyes.

Sarutobi sighed, his crystal ball in front of him on the desk showing the events that were happening in the forest on the outskirts of konoha at this very moment. Naruto was sitting in a tree, asleep, the forbidden scroll of sealing in his arms, being cuddled to his chest. The hokage sighed, knowing that Nari always slept with her stuffed toy, a bear - Miki, and that the scroll was taking it's place for the time being. He sighed, still not sure why Naruto had taken the scroll, as she hadn't told him yet, and Hinata and Shikamaru were hidden in the trees around Naruto but Hinata was the only one awake - barley.

Hinata jumped as she sensed a chakra signal approaching fast and threw a stone at Naruto, tilting her head in the direction of the chakra signature when he looked over, before throwing another stone at Shikamaru, effectively waking them both up.

Hearing a knock, the hokage looked up, seeing a distressed Kakashi in his doorway. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the younger man, he had just lost his wife and now his little sister(so to speak) had just stolen the most sacred scroll in the village of Konoha. He motioned for the retired ANBU to come and sit down, and Kakashi did, closing the door behind him, and sighing in relief when he saw Naruto through the crystal ball, looking tired and worn out, but alright none the less. He laughed when he spotted Hinata and Shikamaru in the trees, the boy looking half asleep.

At the field Naruto had torn his clothes a bit ran around the clearing three times really really fast and then set himself at the base of the tree he was previously sleeping in. Opening the scroll, he looked at the first jutsu - Kage bunshin no jutsu. He sighed, already knowing the technique, and wondered to himself why he did this again. Feeling the chakra signature get closer, he put his hand in the finishing seal for the technique and ran his hand through his hair just as Iruka emerged from the bushes. He spotted Naruto immediately, and shouted as soon as he had caught his breath slightly.

"Naruto!" The boy in question looked up, and when he spotted who had found him, his face split into a large grin, which, when he saw Iruka's face, quickly turned into a frown.

"Hehehehe you found me Iruka-sensei." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ne, ne Iruka sensei, if I perform a technique from this scroll I can graduate, right? Right?" Iruka's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Who told you that?" Iruka questioned.

"Mizuki-sensei!" Iruka gasped, surprised, not sure if he should believe Naruto, but also knowing that Naruto wouldn't lie. The sound of something coming towards him broke Iruka out of his musings of his best friend, and before they could strike, he pushed Naruto out of the way, getting struck in the thigh with a kunai, and many others found themselves pinning him to the shack behind him. He grunted, pain shooting through his body from the weapon stuck in his leg.

"Mizuki!" Mizuki appeared on the tree in front of them, two giant shuriken strapped to his back. He laughed, seeing the pain Iruka was in.

"Naruto, hand over the scroll" Mizuki demanded.

"Ano sa, ano sa, what's going on here?" Naruto asked, looking between the two teachers.

"Naruto, get out of here, take the scroll!" Iruka shouted, trying to get his point across to the blonde boy. "Mizuki used you to get the scroll!" Naruto clenched his teeth, grunting angrily.

"Naruto, Iruka is just afraid of you possessing that scroll. He's the same as the rest of the villagers - he hates you, just like the rest!" Mizuki cackled evilly.

"NO! That's not true Naruto!" Iruka shouted, knowing where this was going.

"I'll tell you why. You want to know, don't you, Naruto? Well, I'll tell you. You know the story of the yondaime defeating the Kyuubi, how he killed it. That's not true, he sealed him, into a little boy, born on that very same day, October 10th. That boy was you!" He cackled again "You are the Kyuubi! You killed hundreds of people, you killed Iruka's parents!" By that time Iruka, free of the kunai, was about ready to grab Naruto and run, then get him hypnotised so he wouldn't remember this.

"Is this true, Iruka-sensei? Do you really hate me? Was it all a lie!" Naruto's voice got louder the more questions he asked. He had tears in his eyes and his breathing was shallow.

In the hokage office, Kakashi was having to be restrained from going out to that forest, beating the traitor(Mizuki) to death and going to comfort Naruto. It wasn't an easy job, and it took Anko, Ibiki and the hokage himself to stop the grey-haired jonin from doing exactly what all of them wanted to do. Kakashi was also going to kill Iruka if he didn't answer correctly(in his way). And if either of them hurt Naruto in any way they were dead. Tortured first, of course, painfully, then an extremely painful death. The look on Naruto's face, the tears in his eyes, made all the people in the room want to just run to him and hug him.

"No, that's not true Naruto. I used to hate you, I used to blame you for the death of my parents, but then I realised that you and I are alike! We're both orphans, we have both lost our parents to the Kyuubi. I don't hate you!" Iruka shouted, diving in front of Naruto as one of Mizuki's giant shuriken spun towards Naruto, aiming to kill, but missing its target, instead embedding itself in Iruka's back, making the man cough up blood. "Run Naruto, get away from here" He whispered, smiling at the young boy. He frowned when Naruto shook his head, and stood up, pushing the older man behind him.

"I'm not going to leave you sensei. You believe in me, you don't hate me because of the Kyuubi, although you have good reason. Oh yeah - " Naruto turned his head slightly " - Kyuu-chan says sorry about that" In the trees Hinata couldn't help but snigger, but sighed when she heard a light snore, and kicked Shikamaru rather hard in the stomach. The result of that action was he fell out of the tree. Right in front of Mizuki. Iruka gasped, shocked when he saw another one of his students in the clearing. On his back. Half-asleep and rubbing his stomach.

"Hina-chan kick you again, eh Shika?" The playful tone of voice made Shikamaru glare at Naruto, shocking Iruka that the lazy boy could produce such a chilling look. When Hinata appeared beside Shikamaru's head, Iruka almost fainted.

"So, need some help Naru?" It was then Naruto's turn to glare at Hinata, which the girl just laughed at. Mizuki growled then, annoyed by the sudden appearance of two genin. Sighing simultaneously, the three pre-teens (after Shikamaru got up) charged forward, all making different hand signs. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto shouted, and less then a second later over 100 Naruto's appeared, surrounding Mizuki, who looked slightly shocked at the number. They then pounced, punching and kicking whenever they could, but they were quickly disappearing as Mizuki attacked back. Shikamaru then did two handseals - rat, bird - before shouting out the technique - "Kagemane no justsu!" All of the Naruto clones jumped out of the way, and into the air, allowing Shikamaru's shadow to attach itself to Mizuki's. When Shikamaru uttered "Kagemane success" Hinata activated her Byakugan and started walking towards Mizuki stopping three feet infront of him, before slipping into the Juken style.

"You are in my field of divination" Mizuki's eyes widened when he heard that "Hakke sanjuni sho!" Hinata rushed forward, striking Mizuki with the tips of her fingers, which were filled with chakra. "Two palms, four palms, eight palms, sixteen palms, thirty two palms!" Hinata finished her attack by hitting Mizuki on a pressure point in his neck, before jumping back beside Naruto and Shikamaru, allowing two of Naruto's shadow clones to catch the falling Mizuki and tie him up. Iruka could do nothing but gape. Regaining his senses, he stood up, before putting his hands on Naruto's shoulders and turning him around.

"Close your eyes Naruto" Iruka told the child gently, smiling when the blonde did as he was told. Quickly slipping of Naruto's googles, he took of his own headband before tying it around Naruto's forehead. When Naruto opened his eyes, he looked at Iruka in confusion, before gaping and reaching up to his forehead to tap the forehead protector. Smiling hugely, he glomped Iruka before anything else could be said.

The next day found the trio of newly made genin standing, once again, in front of the hokage, but this time without their disguises on and Kakashi was standing behind them, his hands on Nari's shoulders. Hinata and Shikamaru were glaring at the hokage, their eyes saying more then words could - well, kind off - he was dead if he didn't answer, and he knew it. Nari was not even looking at him, instead choosing to tilt her head back and look at Kakashi, trying to decipher his emotions through his one visible eye. She gave up after awhile, an annoyed look in her eyes, unable to figure out the conflicted emotions hidden in his grey eye. Seeing this, Kakashi smiled behind his mask before reaching down, wrapping his arms around her waist and picking her up, making her squealing lightly. Nari smiled at Kakashi, shifting so she was on his hip, before wrapping her legs around his lower stomach.

"So... you want to know what teams you are in, huh?" The hokage asked, acting uncharacteristically childish. All three of the Genin hopefuls glared at him, their unspoken threats hanging in the air. He coughed, stalling, until pointing to the clock and saying "You'll be late if you don't get going soon. Good luck with your new teams!" He added the last part as a joke, but he was pretty sure, that if the looks they were giving him was anything to go by, his name would be the next one carved into the memorial stone. All three of them glared at him once more, before Nari gave Kakashi a kiss on the cheek and got out of his hold, landing next to her friends with a low thump. Together, their hands all went through the same hand signs to cast the strong genjutsu over themselves. After the cloud of smoke(which appeared when they completed the jutsu) was gone, Uzumaki Naruto stood there, his bright orange jumpsuit on and the big foxy grin on his face. Hinata stood there, cream coat and blue ninja pants, with Shikamaru on her left in his mesh shirt, grey jacket and brown pants. Glaring at him for hopefully the last time, they all walked out the door, going in different directions once they were out of the tower. Looking over at Kakashi, the sandaime hokage sighed, slightly scared by the look in his eye.

"So, looking forward to when they find out about their Genin teams?" It soon became obvious why Kakashi had that slightly sadistic look in his eye -he was thinking about what Hinata, Nari and Shikamaru would do to Konoha's near fearless leader. Kakashi laughed once more at the look on the sandaime's face, before waving and disappearing in a puff of smoke. The hokage took out his pipe, took a big puff and glared at the big stack of paperwork, dreading what the three Genin would do to him later on today.

**- At the acadamy -**

The classroom was loud and headache inducing. Iruka-sensei stood at the front of the room, waiting for everyone's attention to focuss on him. He couldn't help but think about what he had walked in on a few minutes ago...

_-** - Flashback - -**_

_Iruka opened the door, fully prepared to shout at his students to get them to shut up and sit down. His mouth open, he stopped, his eyes settling on the commotion going on in the middle of the classroom. Naruto Uzumaki, village prankster and all-round idiot was in a lip-lock with Sasuke Uchiha, sole survivor of the prestigious Uchiha clan - except for his traitor of a brother, Itachi. They broke apart after 10 seconds of uncomfortable silence. Naruto jumped away, both of them holding their throats and gagging, trying to get the taste of the other of their lips. Laughing, Iruka looked for the papers that held the team placements on them. He found it eventually, taking a little longer then necessary to sort through them._

**_- - Flashback end - -_**

Naruto sighed, wishing his sensei would hurry up and say the teams already, he had already taken his time getting here, and that ended with him accidentally kissing Sasuke-teme. Naruto quickly glanced around the classroom, seeing Shika with his head on his arms, which were resting against the desk top. Hina-chan was looking around nervously, hoping that her team would be Naruto and Shika. They all zoned out until Naruto's named was called, after the team number - 7 - along with Sakura Haruno, leader of the fangirls - and, keeping up the charade of having a crush on the pink haired girl, Naruto cheered, whilst on the inside he was thinking that this probably meant he wouldn't have Hina-chan on his team - and Sakura banged her head on the desk. The next name called out belonged to the shinobi who would be the last member of team 7. " Uchiha, Sasuke" This time, Naruto banged his head on the desk, whilst Sakura cheered. Sasuke just sat there glaring at Iruka. The rest of the teams were called, Hinata ending up in team 8 with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, whilst Shikamaru was in team 10 with Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka. They all sighed, once again simultaneously, but nobody noticing.

"Alright, you got an hour and a half to eat lunch, before your expected back here to meet your Jonin sensei" And with that Iruka walked out of the classroom.

The three best friends glanced at one another before Shikamaru walked out of the classroom and outside followed by Hinata a second later, and then soon after that Naruto appeared. They then ran to the hokage's office, faster then the eye could see, to shout at him. Up in his office, the third hokage sighed, seeing them sprinting down the streets of Konoha to slaughter him.

* * *

Ok, so Hinata and Shikamaru also have different appearance - their normal appearance is the longer hair, blue-tinted eyes, and similar outfits. The henged appearance's are the ones in the canon. Hope that helps.

Kage bunshin no jutsu - Shadow clone jutsu

Kagemane no jutsu - Shadow imitation jutsu

Hakke sanjuni sho - Eight trigrams, thirty two palms


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Third chapter, as you can probably tell. Oh well, Enjoy!

**Discalimer**:I do not own the Naruto series or characters.

* * *

The three friends sat in the acadamy classroom, in different parts of the room, but communicating easily - you see, last year they came up with a jutsu that allowed them to talk to each other in their minds. " I can't believe that we're not in the same team" Hinata mind screamed, thinking of the way they could carry on their torture of the hokage, that had to be ended when it was time for them to meet their jonin sensei. " I know, he had better given us good sensei's or I will kill him." Nari added, her words true, and agreed to by the rest of her team. Shikamaru was about to say something, when two shinobi appeared, walking to the front of the previously teacher free classroom. The woman spoke up first " I am here for team 8" and nodded when Hinata, Kiba and Shino stood up, signaling for them to follow her. They then stepped out of the classroom.  
" Ok, team 10, follow me" the other guy said, walking out of the classroom not even bothering to look to see if they did follow him. More shinobi arrived after that, and soon the room was almost completely empty, save for the newly formed team 7.

Kakashi sighed, standing infront of the memorial stone. A new name was recently added to the large stone, and all he could do was stare at it, wanting to cry, but knowing he couldn't - she wouldn't of liked it. He reached his hand up, tracing the name with his fingers, his heart clenching painfully. He had come before, many times in the last decade, but this was the first time it had been so painful since his teammate died. Sighing once again, he turned around to leave, knowing that when she found out, Nari was going to glomp him and not let go for days - and she wouldn't have to, as he was her sensei and they both needed some comfort. Reaching into his weapon pouch, he brought out a white rose, and placed it on the ground next to the stone, before turning on his heel and walking away,. Glancing over his shoulder one more time, he looked at the name of the person he would do anything to see one more time - Midori Hatake.

It had been two hours since the three genin had been left alone in the classroom, and Naruto, sticking to his facade, set up a prank for their ridiculously late sensei - using a chair, he stuffed the board eraser over the door frame, so that when the teacher walked in, the object would fall on his/her head and cover them in chalk dust. Sakura was shouting at him, telling him it was childish, and that they were genin now, he'd better start acting like it. Sasuke was sitting by the window and added his opinion about the prank "Our sensei is an elite Jonin, I doubt he would fall for something like this."  
Naruto was about to retort, but was cut of when the door opened and the eraser fell on the head of the person peeking inside the room. He could just make out a head of grey hair, and squealed in excitment, but muffled it with his hand so it sounded more like a laugh, knowing exactly who is new sensei is. Kakashi Hatake looked around, seeing the faces of his new charges - Naruto was excited and looking ready to hug him, that much he could tell, Sakura was trying not to laugh, not believing that the childish prank actually worked. Sasuke just looked annoyed that his new teacher couldn't even dodge a board eraser.  
" My first impression of you all is... I hate you" He ignored there expressions of disbelief on Sasuke's and Sakura's faces and the look of amusment on Naruto's. "Meet me on the roof" and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Once he got there, he sighed, dreading what Nari would do to him when they were alone. He didn't want to think about it.

Sasuke sighed, standing up and walking out of the classroom, and up the long flight of stairs to get to the roof, Sakura following him like a faithful puppy and Naruto following her like her puppy - but still resisting the urge to squeal. They got to the roof in a matter of minutes, and sat on the steps. Sasuke sat in the middle, with Naruto on his left and Sakura on his right. Kakashi stood infront of them, leaning against the railing, an orange book held up infront of his face - Sasuke could see Naruto's eye twitching whenever he looked at the book, and he wasn't sure why.  
" Let's see... why don't we introduce ourselves?" Kakashi phrased it as a question, but it was obvious they would have to do as he said.  
" Introduce ourselves? What should we say?" Sakura asked, not getting what they were supposed to do.  
" Say your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams" Kakashi stated " Why don't you go first, sensei?" Naruto intergected.  
" Ok, I'll demonstrate. I am Kakashi Hatake, I have many likes and dislikes, I have lot's of hobbies, and my dream... I have a dream" Everyone sweat dropped, thinking 'All he told us was his name!'  
" You first" He was looking at Naruto " Ok! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, but I really like the ramen at Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei bought for me even more! I hate the three minutes that it takes before I can eat the ramen after pouring in the hot water, and a few select people" Naruto chose his words carefully, knowing it was out of character to say something like that, but, hey, it was supposed to be an introduction, right? " My hobby is to eat and compare different ramens to train and to create more music! And my dream is to become greater than all the hokages! I'm going to make the entire village recgonise my existance and protect all my precious people." All four people on the roof had different thoughts - Naruto was thinking ' I can't believe I just said that much about ramen! But protecting most of my precious people will be easy' The only thought running through Sasuke's head was 'dobe'. Sakura thought ' My Sasuke-kun is so much better then that baka Naruto!' Kakashi just sighed inwardly, not believing that Nari was the same person as Naruto. Sighing once again, he looked at Sakura with his one visible eye, and nodded at her, signaling she was next.  
" I am Sakura Haruno! I like... well the person I like is..." she glanced at Sasuke and blushed " And my hobby is..." Another glance at Sasuke, blushing even harder. " Well, my dream is to..." She glanced at Sasuke again and squealed, burying her face in her hands. " And? What do you hate?" Kakashi asked.  
" Naruto!" She replied, not hesitating at all.  
"Eeeeehhhh!" Naruto screeched, wondering what he did wrong. Kakashi shook his head ' Girls her age are more interested in love then becoming a ninja' he thought, until 'except Nari and Hinata' he couldn't help but imagine what they would do to him if either of them ever found out he thought that. He looked at the last person, thinking this would be interesting.  
" My name is Sasuke Uchiha, There are many things that I hate, and there isn't anything that I particularly like. I also have an ambition that I have no intention to leave as a dream... I will restore my clan and kill a certain man." Kakashi could only think ' As I thought' whilst Naruto was thinking how disapointed Sasuke would be when this certain man defeated him (Naruto knew exactly who it was). Sakura was squealing once again. Kakashi sighed, thinking 'An avenger, a fangirl and Nari - I'm doomed!'  
" Ok, you three all have unique personalities. I like that. Starting tomorrow we begin our missions. First mission - survival training. Meet me at 07:00 at training ground 7 tomorrow. And don't eat brekfast!" Not giving them time to complain - or for Naruto to attack him - , Kakashi used one hand to create a seal, and disappeared, leaving behind only smoke.  
Sasuke watched as Naruto stood up, streching his arms out in front of him and yawning loudly. He could hear Naruto mutter under his breath only a few words and phrases reaching the Uchiha's ears - 'so dead' and 'need to find' along with 'Hina' and 'Shika' before Naruto disappeared from sight, slowly walking down the stood up next, knowing that there was no point in staying if it just meant siting there and listen to Sakura constantly ask him out on dates, and apparantly not understand his rejection.

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha, heading towards the hokage mountain, where he would train in the forest surronding it. Hinata and Shikamaru were probably on their way there as well, as he knew today's meeting with the sensei's was just an introduction. He arrived at the edge of the forest soon enough, and jumped up into the trees, pumping chakra into his legs to move faster. When he arrived in the middle of the forest, in an empty clearing, he brought his hand up to make a seal, channeling his chakra into the area surronding him.  
With a shout of "Kai!" The empty clearing turned into a training ground - there were a group of wooden dummines of to the left of the clearing, a whole load of targets attached to trees to the right and right infront of him was a sparring ground, filled with boulders and a small pond, as well as lots of bushes. Going through three seals quickly, Naruto was surronded by a puff of smoke, and instead of the blonde boy, there was a red haired girl. Nari was dressed as she usually was, in her dark blue shorts and light blue t-shirt, as well as her mesh armour - the only difference was the leaf village headband tied around her neck. Nari walked over to the training dummies, slipping into a stance - her right foot diagonally behind her left, a shoulder width apart, her left hand was brought up sp it was pointing straight to the trees on her left side, and her right hand was out infront of her, palm facing the ground - her squirel stance. Snapping her fingers, around 15 dummies surronded her. Pivoting on her right foot, she brought her left hand down so it was pointing in a diagonal line at a dummy to her left, so when she spun, she hit most of the training dummies on the feet, knocking them down, before doing a back flip and landing on her right hands, spining around on it and hitting the pieces of wood once more. Jumping back into her original stance, she turned around slowly, looking for weak spots in the wooden people. Seeing what she was looking for, she lept forward hitting the dummy infront of her with a chakra filled middle finger, which made it explode into pieces. She ran forward to the next one, but this time backhanding it, sending it flying into a tree, where it too crashed to pieces. She spun around once more, jumoing into the air, twirling around, before going back down, her big toe on her left foot - (which was full of chakra) tapping a dummy on the head, making that explode. She spun around, hitting each dummy somewhere, until she was surronded by pieces of wood and came to a stanstill. Glancing around she saw Hinata and Shikamaru standing there, still in their henge and couldn't help but laugh at the look on their faces. Hinata was glaring at a tree too her left and Shikamaru looked about ready to drop to the ground and not get up for three days. Chuckling once more, she walked towards them slowly, making Hinata glare at him. She held her hands up as if surendering, making the blue-haired girl huff and go back to glaring at the tree.  
"So... how was it? How are your new teams?" When she got two almost identical glares she sweatdropped, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.  
"Do you know how damn annoying it is to force yourself to stutter everytime you talk and blush whenever someone so much as glances at you?" Hinata raged, carrying on before she got an answer to any of her question. "Kiba is a foul-smelling idiot and his dog is too noisy and Shino doesn't say anything! His bugs make loads of noise those glasses of his glint in the sunlight and kept getting in my eyes and the sensei - Kurenai Yuhi is a genjutsu mistress! How in the world is she meant to teach us anything - I mean, they put us three togather as a tracking team, but then they give us a genjutsu mistress! Ahhh! I just want to go home" Hinata raged about the faults of her team, ending with the fact that they were far away from home and wanted to go back, get away from Konoha and never come back - of course, they'd take their precious people with them, kicking and screaming if they had to, as they weren't about to leave them here. But they knew they couldn't leave, not yet, not when two of the three were from well known clans - Nara and Hyuuga. "My team is troublesome. That Ino girl goes on and on about Uchiha-san and doesn't actually do anything. Chouji is okay, I guess, but he could cut down on the eating to train more, and my new sensei sits there, tells us to do something, and then goes and smokes. It's degrading to shinobi." Shikamaru finished his assessment of team 10 with a sigh.  
"The Uchiha is an arrogant teme who doesn't listen to anyone and believes that he's the only one worthy of being taught and its really annoying ecspecially as he used to be such a nice kid as well - I think I can change him, but Kami-sama knows it'll be hard. That banshee Sakura - where should I start. She talks too loudly, she'd always talking, never shuts up about Sasuke and her pink hair is blinding. She is more intrested in love then being a ninja! My sensei is Kakashi. Enough said." All three sweatdropped, knowing what Kakashi is like. "Kiba has a good nose and is easy to get along with, as well as the fact that he has been trained to work as a pair with Akamaru, so if we need to pair of, it's easy enough. Shino's best friends are his bugs, and they can be used for a number of things - such as tracking, or capturing a shinobi, as they can drain chakra. He can be a bit weird, but his personality helps even out Kiba's. Kurenai is a newly made jonin, so is fresh out, which would mean this is a new experience for all of us. As she is a genjutsu mistress, she can teach Kiba how to cast and release one, as it is not his strong point. With Shino, he can easily realease one, but probably has trouble casting a genjutsu. As for me, she's probably gonna help me find the weak spots in someones attack, whether it be genjutsu, ninjutsu or taijutsu." Hinata finished her speech about the good points of her team by saying sulkily "I still want to go home though"  
The other two couldn't agree more with the last statement.  
"Ino has been trained well in her clan jutsu, as well as having the body and mind of a girl willing to do seduction to get the job done - even with her unhealthy obsession with Sasuke. Chouji, like Ino, is well trained in his clans jutsu. He is also willing to work as a team, and when provoked, can become rather dangerous. Asuma knows what he's doing, as he has trained lots of teams before mine. He is one of the few wind users of Konoha, and knows lots of jutsu for all chakra types. He may not be a good role model, but he'd make a brilliant team leader. It's troublesome" Shikamaru finished telling his friends about his team with his trademark phrase.  
"Sakura is well-versed in genjutsu, but only knbows the academy's basic taijutsu stances and ninjutsu. She has good chakra control, and if she gets over her obsession with Sasuke, could probably become a great medic, as well as a powerhouse. Sasuke knows most of the Uchiha clans fire techniques, as well as a few others - including the ones taught in the academy. Taijutsu is his strong point, and mostly uses the Uchiha style. His weak point is genjutsu, as he has a rather large chakra supply, and not much control over it yet. Kakashi is Kakashi." Nari finished her assessment with a shrug, all three genin sighing at the same time afterwards, knowing what Kakashi's like. "So... Let's get training!" Hinata shouted, going over to the training dummies. Shikamaru shrugged before going over to the targets. Nari sighed before turning around, and walking forward to the only empty part of the clearing, lifting her hands up to create a seal, ready to start her ninjutsu.

Iruka lay in bed, the window beside him showing the full moon, high in the sky. He sighed, turned over and tried to get comfortable. His mind couldn't help but conjure up what the hokage had told him the night before, after Naruto defeated Mizuki with the help of Hinata and Shikamaru.

_**- - Flashback - -**_

_When they stood before the big oak door of the hokage's office, Iruka was already wondering what was going on. But when the three genins before him just barged in without even knocking, he couldn't help but gasp. When he saw who was in the room - all high level jonins - he felt the need to drag the genins back out and/or faint. But when Anko Mitarashi came up to them and ruffled Hinata's and Shikamaru's hair, he knew he was going to faint. When Naruto rushed over to Kakashi, he almost had a heart attack - Naruto going over to Kakashi Hatake, one of the most powerful jonin in the last 15 years. What really topped the day off was when Kakashi opened his arms and caught Naruto when he jumped at the jonin. Naruto then wrapped his legs around Kakashi's waist and his arms around the mans shoulders, as Kakashi wrapped one arm around Naruto's back and the other one went under his bum, at the top of his thighs. Hinata went towards Anko and stood next to her, holding her hand, sighing when they touched. Shikamaru sighed and went over too Ibiki - Ibiki Morino! The head of the T&I force! Ibiki chuckled and ruffled the genins hair, laughing once more when Shikamaru mumbled a troublesome. Iruka stared at the occupants of the room, the way they acted like a family, and with the hokage sitting at the back of the room, at the desk, making him look like the granfather looking over his family. When Sarutobi looked over at Iruka, he couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. "So, children you dragged Iruka here without explaining anything?" You could hear the laughter in the old mans voice._  
_"But Ojii-san, you know we don't like telling that story, and anyway he's your shinobi, its your responsibility to tell him what he needs to know." Hinata said, shocking Iruka - as the heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she needed to treat the hokage with respect. The old man laughed, smiling at her._  
_"True, true Hinata. I guess, Iruka that we had better tell you the story, from the beginning" The sandaime smiled at Iruka, taking a deep breath before beginning the story. "Twelve years ago..." And so the hokage went on, telling Iruka the life of a girl who was beaten and abused for something she had no control over, or, at that time, knew about. About how her life changed when she turned four, when her best friend found her in an alleyway, having suffered her worst beating in the last four years. How an old man and her brother chose the best way to protect her, and they decided on one - train her, and desguise her as a boy. About how her life changed dramatically - the villagers changed from physical to verbal abuse, only the very brave (or stupid, depending on how you look at it) going near the girl turned boy and beating him/her. How, when she started school, she made two friends - best friends. The travels they made with their sensei's, the people they met, and how much fun they had. By the time the hokage had finished, Iruka was lost in the story, no clue who the girl was, and only shook out of his stupor when he heard two light snores. Looking around he saw Shikamaru leaning against Ibiki, asleep, snoring lightly. Hinata was leaning against Anko, her head on her chest and also asleep, but deep breathing being the only sound coming from her. Naruto was still in Kakashi's arms, fast asleep, with his head on the mans shoulder, snoring lightly like Shikamaru. He was mortified, not believing his students could fall asleep during a story from the hokage himself - well, Shikamaru he expected, he could sleep through anything and everything, but the hokage was Naruto's role model, and Hinata was a Hyuuga, they were trained to listen to everyone and be polite about it. When the hokage chuckled, he relaxed slightly, but still couldn't believe the nerve of the genin. "Children, wake up" The hokage said "I know you've had a long day, and you must be tired, but we still have yet to show Iruka." The hokage explained when the genin glared at him - which almost caused Iruka to have a heart attack (again). Sighing, Naruto kicked Kakashi lightly(almost causing Iruka to faint), signiling for him to put her down, which he did, setting him on his feet. Shikamaru stood up straight, and rubbed his eyes, looking like a little kid. Hinata sighed, and leaned against Anko again, scratching her cheek. All together they shrugged their shoulders at the hokage and turned to Iruka. Lifting their hands up, they went through a set of seals, and after the last one was done, they were engulfed by a puff of smoke. When it cleared, it showed something Iruka never thought too see in a million years. He gaped, staring at the three figures infront of him. The only male had lazy brown eyes, which held a tint of blue, as well as choppy brown hair to just past his shoulders. The girl on his right had dark blue hair, which ended at her waist and the traditional Hyuuga eyes, but like the male, with a blue tint to them. The last girl had deep red hair that was up in pigtails, and pale blue eyes. He was going to faint. He knew he was._  
_"Iruka, this is Hinata - " He pointed at the blue-haired girl " - this is Shikamaru - " He pointed at the male " - and this is Nari, previously known to you as Naruto." When the hokage said that, Iruka fainted._

**_- - Flashback End - -_**

Sighing once more, Iruka turned over and got ready to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Hearing a knock at his door, Kakashi sat up from his couch, were he was reading his book. Annoyed at being interupted,  
he took his time getting to the door, but when he opened it, he almost took a step back in surprise - which he knew was stupid, as he knew they would show up on his doorstep sometime in the night. Looking at the three kids' faces, he sighed and took a step back, allowing them into his home. When all three of them had marched past him, he closed the door and followed them into the living room, where they were standing, waiting for him. Knowing what they were doing, the grey haired man sighed and sat on his couch, letting them know they could sit down now. Smiling, Shikamaru plopped down on to the armchair, Hinata sitting on his lap when he was comfortable, whilst Nari set herself on the seat next to him, kicking her shoes off and swinging them up onto his lap. Knowing what she was silently asking, he put his hands on her feet and started massaging them. Smiling at the other two, he nodded his head at the door, which was just visible through the door in the room. Thanking him, Hinata and Shikamaru got up and walked towards the door, biding good night to the two still on the couch. "You do realise that you just sent them to the only spare room. And that your bedroom only has a double bed?" Nari asked Kakashi.  
"Yes, but i also know that you are going to stay next to me for the next couple of days as punishment for not telling you i'm your sensei. And you had a hard mission last night" Kakashi replied knowingly. Nari laughed lightly, and nodded, pulling her feet away from his hands and standing up. The red head understood his underlying meaning - for him, like her, the past two days had been hard, and they both needed some familiar comfort. Nari held out her hand to the man who had become like a brother to her - or a father. He took her hand, and she hauled him up, punching him rather hard in the arm before pulling him up to the door of his bedroom, and walking into the familiar room. She dragged him to the wardrobe in the corner of the bedroom and opened one of the doors, reaching her hand in and taking out a bundle of clothes situated at the back of the piece of furniture. Letting go of his hand, she seperated the bundle, taking out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, before stuffing it back in the wardrobe. Grinning at him, Nari walked to a door situated in the south facing wall of the room, and opened it revealing a bathroom, walking in a shutting and locking it after her. "She's been sleeping here for so long she has her own clothes" Kakashi muttered under his breath, laughing at the fact that his statment was true. He then winced, rubbing the forming bruise on his arm.

When Nari walked out of the bathroom, it was to see Kakashi sitting on the edge of the bed, dressed in a pair of pajama bottoms and a baggy t-shirt. Walking up to the spot next to him, she got on her hands and knees and crawled around him, before pulling the covers back and snuggling under the thick duvet. When Kakashi turned around and got in bed, she turned towards him and smiled, before, moving around a bit and closing her eyes, waiting for the man next to her to turn of the light so she could go to sleep and snuggling into his chest when he did. His voice was the last thing she heard before going to sleep - "You better not tell _him_ about this or he'll kill me".

When Sasuke showed up at training ground seven the next morning, at 06:50 he wasn't surprised to see it void of all human life. It was early after all, and the first rays of sunlight were only starting to be seen over the horizon. Sakura showed up a little while later, at exactly seven o'clock, ready to greet her Sasuke-kun - and her sensei and Naruto, of course. But she was suprised when she saw that Sasuke was the only one standing there, leaning against a tree in a way only he could. She soon saw the silver lining, and ran up to the raven haired boy shouting his name as loud as she thought appropriate at this time in the morning. Sakura latched onto his arm and began her constant stream of babaling, filling the uncomfortable silence that was bound to come if she shut up. It wasn't until 09:30 that Naruto and Kakashi showed up, suprising their new teammates.

Naruto and Kakashi arrived at the training grounds together, and what shocked the two genins was that Kakashi was carrying Naruto on his back. When the older man set him down, his teammates shock could clearly be seen on their faces - not that it wasn't on Sakura's before, but know it could be seen on Sasuke's face as well. Naruto knew he was taking a risk, but Kakashi, Hinata and Shikamaru had convinced him it wouldn't matter much - yeah right, he could practicaly FEEL his teammates shock. He could see his teammates eyes roaming over his new outfit and tugged at the end of his sleeves nervously. He was wearing a mesh shirt with a blue shirt over the top and a long sleeved black jacket on top of that, with the zip done up halfway. He was also wearing dark blue shorts that ended just below the knee. He had a chain belt hanging from his waist and hanging from that was seven small scrolls - scrolls that Sakura knew she had to unseal in the near future. He had on black ninja sandals, and had his weapon pouch on his left thigh, as well as bandages wrapped from both his ankles to his knees. His Konoha headband was around his neck on a light blue cloth, different from the original navy. Sakura gaped, her eyes bugging out, secretly thinking he was rather good looking. Sasuke couldn't take his slightly widened eyes off of him - he took in Naruto's wide blue eyes, the colour of a summer sky, and his near shoulder length hair, a bright golden blond was not in its usually spikey do, but instead lay down over his head, still sticking out in all directions. Sasuke couldn't help but think he looked like a girl, and horribly familiar. "You're late!" Sakura screamed at the two. Sasuke was still casting covert glances at Naruto, a weird look in his eyes.  
"A black cat crossed our path so..." Kakashi was inturupted by a slap on the head (akura gaped at the fact that Naruto had jit their sensei) "We over slept. And then we were even more late because you kept fussing over all of us" - It was true, Kakashi had waken them all up at eight'o'clock, and fussed over all three genins, but Shikamaru and Hinata had managed to escape after an hour with the excuse of going to meet their teams, but Nari had been stuck there with Kakashi fussing over her, putting her hair in plaits for her and everything, before giving her a full makeover when she'd transformed into Naruto, and then had worried over the fact that they'd be going on proper missions now with only one jonin and how she might get hurt. She'd finally managed to get him out of the house by promising that she'd be careful.

The two genins couldn't believe it - Naruto had slept over their sensei's house, with other people, and Kakashi fussed over them - it was geting to be too much. That was when they saw how close Naruto and Kakashi were standing.  
"Ok, today is survival training" Kakashi pulled out two bells from one of the pockets in his Jonin vest " You all need to get one bell each before noon" He set an alarm clock on top of a stump, one of three situated in the middle of the training grounds. The three genin hopefulls looked at him. "If you don't pass, you get sent back to the acadamy" He ignored their squeaks of indignation " There is a 66.66% chance of faliure"  
"But sensei, there are only two bells" Sakura observed "Ah, well done, Sakura. This means that one of you will definitely be sent back to the acadamy. If none of you get the bells, you all go back" Kakashi heard Naruto sigh, and almost laughed at how bored his blonde student would be - he had done this test before, but with Shikamaru and Hinata(they had gotten it after a while) and he knew that Naruto knew there was practicaly no teamwork in this cell. He sighed,shaking his head to make himself able to act more serious. "OK, come at me with the intent to kill...GO!" The three Genin disappeared. Kakashi was suprised when Naruto didn't just bardge right in and attack him (as were his other teammates), but didn't dwell on it too much as he heard a rustle of leaves to his left.

Naruto attacked from the right, throwing a barrage of kunai's at Kakashi, stopping three metres in front of him. Sasuke's mouth dropped open from his hiding spot under the trees. Sakura almost gasped from her place in the bushes, both suprised at their teammates sudden appearance, and his attack on their sensei. Naruto stood straighter, his back ramrod straight. He leaned forward suddenly, a small grin spreading across his face. It made him look like a fox. His blue eyes seemed to be studying Kakashi, searching for something only the jonin knew from years of training with Nari. It was the look of a hunter, searching for it's prey - the two hidden ninja couldn't understand why their sensei stood straighter then before, his shown face loosing all emotion (even better then Sasuke!). Naruto's grin stretched even wider, scaring the heck out of the other people on the training ground. He straightened up once more, this time more relaxed. " You know, Kaka-sensei, I'm not going to attack you" Kakashi's eye widened slightly, as did Nauto's teammates. Naruto started walking backwards, never taking his eyes off of Kakashi, only turning round when he reached the tree line. Jumping up to a branch in the nearest tree, he turned around once more " Yet" and he disappeared. Kakashi sighed again, before reaching into his kunai pouch, startling his students. Chuckling, he pulled out an orange book, the words 'Icha Icha paradise' clearly written on the cover. He sensed his students relax, before tensing once again when he threw a couple of kunai in their general direction. Seeming to follow Naruto's example, they disappeared into the woods, Kakashi following soon after.

He had 30 minutes until the alarm went off, and was still wondering why he was doing this. 'I mean, I could just blackmail Jiji into letting me be a chunin, or Anko being my sensei, and me being her apprentice' At that thought Naruto almost laughed, imagining the looks on some peoples faces if he was Anko's apprentice. Hearing a loud, shrill scream, he stopped in his tracks, no noise being made apart from the small sounds of his breathing. Trying to pinpoint the scream was harder then he realised it would be without his Kekkai Genkai. Activating his doujutsu kekkai genkai - his eyes turning an extremely plae blue, almost white, with three black rings around his pupil - he scanned the surrounding area for the source of the scream. He found Sakura a couple miles north-west from him, with Sasukes head a couple of metres away from her unconcious body. De-activating his kekkai genkai, he sped of in their direction, sighing every couple of minutes, rather annoyed at how weak his female teammate was. He arrived at his destination in a matter of minutes, landing right next to Sasukes head.  
"So... You dead, or did Kaka-sensei use Doton:Shinju Zanshu no jutsu on you?" Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the look on Sasuke's face. The already present death glare just deepened, promising the blonde haired ninja a painful death if he didn't shut up, and shut up now. Chuckling, he dropped to his knees, before lifting his fist up and bringing it behind his head. Letting his chakra flow to his fist, he punched the ground - hard. At first nothing happened, and Sasuke hurumphed, before the ground started to crack, and before Sasuke knew it, he was lying in a great big crater, Sakura unconcious a couple metres to his left and Naruto still kneeling next to his head. Glaring as Naruto started to laugh again, he got up to his knees before advancing to his feet. Still glaring at his blonde teammate, he began to walk over to the treeline, planning on going ot find his silver-haired sensei and getting one of the bells. He stopped when something grabbed his wrist and looked down, seeing a tanned hand holding on to his wrist. Glancing behind him, he saw it was Naruto, and Sasuke couldn't help but realise how much shorter his other male teammate was then him. Glaring, he looked straight into blue eyes, silently asking the question 'what do you want?' Nauto looked over his shoulder, his hand still holding the taller boys wrist, and began walking over to Sakura, dragging Sasuke along with him. Sasuke didn't think his other male teammate would be this strong, so he didn't realise where he was being dragged until they stopped at their female teammates body. When he did realise, he started to try to tug his wrist from Narutos hand - but to no avail. "Ok, so you obviously can't get the bells from Kakashi-sensei, we're not even gonna get started on wether Sakura can, and I have yet to try, but I doubt I could. So, how about we work as a teamto get the bells, and you and Sakura can have them?" Naruto asked. Sasuke stared at him, wondering why he could be so stupid as to give up the bells, but at the same time wondering why. But, not about to pass up on the chance to become a genin, he nodded agreeing to his blonde teammates plan.

Seeing the nod, Naruto knelt down next to Sakura, letting go of Sasuke's wrist and tried to come up with a plan on how to wake the pink haired girl up. It took him a couple of minutes, but he came up with one that would wake her up and cause a bit of entertainment. Reaching behind him, he grabbed Sassuke's wrist and yanked him down so he was sitting on the ground, face to face with Sakura, their noses almost touching. He pushed the back of his head a bit harder, and "Sakura~ Sasuke is giving you the kiss of life~!" Naruto shouted. The effect was imediate. Sakura's eys snapped open, Sasuke scowled, and when they both tried to sit up at the same time, thay ended up bashing foreheads and kissing anyway. When they seperated, it was a rather funny sight, and Naruto couldn't keep his laughter in. Sakura was blushing so hard he thought her head might come off, and was pouting her lips slightly, her green eyes wide open and staring at Sasuke in new found affection. Sasuke had a light blush across his cheeks,his eyes wide open and staring at Sakura in shock. Thay jumped when Naruto started laughing, turning around to glare at him. It took him a couple of minutes to get his laughter under control, but he couldn't look his teammates in the eyes less he started giggling. Getting a hold of himself he explained the whole plan to his teammates, and once Sakura had agreed they set of into the forest to find their sensei and get the bells.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kakashi stood infront of the three genin hopefuls, Naruto tied to a treetrunk and Sasuke and Sakura sitting on the ground either side of him, holding bells and looking anywhere but each other. When they did catch each others eye, they looked away and blushed furiously. He shook his head and glanced to the blond tied to the post. His head was resting on the post and his eyes were closed, and you could see the sweat running down the side of his face. while he didn't go full out against Kakashi the strain of holding back was hard, ecspecially with his huge chakra reserves.  
"Ok, as you got the bells-" Kakashi said to Sasuke and Sakura "-you get lunch. But you haven't gotten the purpose of this test, but because you got the bells I'll give you all a second chance. Don't mess up - and don't untie Naruto, or feed him!" Throwing two bento boxes at the two sitting on the ground, he left the clearing with a cheery wave, feeling Naruto's glare on his back as he jumped into the trees. He jumped for a minute more beofre stopping and sitting, getting comfortable. He was far enough away so he was out of their range - well, Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto could probably still sense his chakra. Kakashi could still see them though, if he concentrated chakra into his eyes, so it would improve his eyesight.

Naruto sighed, not believing he actually got tied up. The sun was up, it was a nice day and he just wanted to go cloud-watching with his two best friends. His outfit wasn't helping either, the coat was making him heat up to an uncomfortable level and he was getting restless with the limited movement. He wasn't used to being still. He sighed once more and closed his eyes, leaning his head back on the post he was tied to and prepared for a light nap.

Sakura sighed, picking up her bento box, not looking at the Uchiha sitting opposite her. She couldn't understand it - she'd liked him for ages, but when they finally kiss, it felt right, but awkward, and she couldn't look at him anymore and he couldn't look at her. It was frustrating. Opening the box and picking up the chopsticks, she looked at the food and picked up an onigiri, biting into it. She looked up when she heard something, looking around but all she saw was Sasuke eating and Naruto tied to the stump looking half-asleep. When she heard the noise again, she realised it was the blond noys stomach, and looked up at him nervously, before reasoning with herself that he wouldn't be able to do anything if he was hungry and that Kakashi-sensei had gone and wouldn't know if she gave him any food. With that in mind, she brought up her hand and tugged on his arm until he looked down at her his blue eyes glazed over in a sleepy haze. Bringing her chopsticks up, she nudged his mouth open, and gave him some of her lunch. "You won't be much use hungry, and beside, I'm on a diet." And she gave him some more. When another pair of chopsticks intercepted her own she looked over at Sasuke, who was holding his pair out to Naruto. He was blushing too. "Even dobe's need something to eat, and you need energy to help us with the next test." He was definantly blushing, and it was a funny sight, as she had never seen him blush before. Both of them looked up to Naruto when he clamped his mouth down on both pairs of chopsticks, and he chewed slightly before swallowing. When he was done, he looked down at his teammates and let out a smile, something neither of them had ever seen on his face - it was different from his usual face-splitting grin. They fed him for ten more minutes, both giving him a third of their food, before eating their own. They had finished ten minutes later, and the two who were untied lounged on the ground, waiting on their sensei whilst Naruto once again fell into a light doze. Thay all looked up rather uruptly when they felt the crackle of electricity in the air. Kakashi stood over them, dark clouds behind (no clue where they came from) and a thunderous expression on his face. Sasuke was sure he heard Naruto sigh and mumble 'Really, the storm _again_!' under his breath. "You didn't do as I said!" Kakashi shouted "You fed Naruto, when I said you couldn't!" Suddenly the clouds cleared and you could hear birds chirping in the background. "You passed!" Sakura was about ready to faint, but when Sasuke got up and looked ready to charge at their sensei, she just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. "What do you mean we pass! We didn't do anything!" Sasuke thundered, glaring at Kakashi. When he heard the grey haired chuckle, it really was the last straw. He charged, taking out a kunai on the way, ready to attack his sensei. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, his arms being held painfully tight behind his back and a heavy weight on his legs. He could feel something sharp on his neck and could hear Sakura's scream. "You shouldn't charge at me like that" Looking as menacing as he could, Kakashi looked up at Sakura "Kill Naruto or I'll kill Sasuke"

Sakura gaped at her sensei, feeling as if a heavy weight had been put on her shoulders. As much as she loved Sasuke, she couldn't kill Naruto, but Sasuke was the love of her life and she hated Naruto but she couldn't just kill him. She glanced fearfully between Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi, wondering if he was joking, but it was hard to tell with his mask. "Don't worry Sakura, I'd run before you could kill me" Those words were said right in her ear, and she gasped, spinning around to see Naruto crunching down behind her, leaning forward to reach her ear. He wasn't tied to the stump and the rope was on the ground infront of it, in a big pile. Smiling at her shock, Naruto stood up straight, and streched his arms above his head. He looked over to Kakashi and Sasuke, smiling cheekily at them and walking up to them. "Now now, you wouldn't want me dead, would you sensei?" Naruto asked. Seeing the blond's face, Kakashi sighed and stood up, letting go of Sasuke and moving away, so he stood behind Naruto, his hands on the blond's shoulders. "There will be situations in the future when you have to choose between your teammates. It is a matter of life or death. The whole point of this exercise was teamwork - you pass because both of you offered and gave Naruto your food and he accepted, instead of refusing your offer. Now, we will meet at the bridge by training ground three tomorrow at eight 'o' clock for our first mission - or if we don't have one of those, training!" He couldn't help but snicker at the hopeful look on their faces. He laughed once more, before grabbing hold of Naruto's hand and running away in the direction of his house, picking Naruto up when he was far enough away, the blond boy laughing and shouting "On my faithful horse, take me home!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

As the sun set, you could see three figures running through the trees, side by side and hidden in the shadows of the branches they were underneath. The person in the middle was blue-haired, with white eyes that held a tint of blue in them. On her right was a boy, taller then her by a couple of inches, with dark brown hair, which fell past his shoulders in choppy waves, with alert brown eyes that also held a tint of blue to them. The last of the trio had red hair, that was in a low ponytail to her hips, and pale blue eyes.

There were determination all three pairs of eyes. They stopped when they reached a break in the trees, and the blue haired female whispered something, and vains appeared around her eyes, and looked around, whilst the only male walked forward looking at the ground. The red haired female crouched down and put her finger to the ground, closing her eyes in concentration. She stayed in that posistion for 2 more minutes before standing up aruptly and spinning around to face west. The others also looked that way, peering into the trees, until the blue haired female ran forward, jumping into the trees, and the other two followed her, running through the trees, searching.

* * *

The Hokage sighed, looking at the young girl standing infront of him. She didn't look too good - her clothes were ripped and bloodied, she had giant bruises on her stomach (you could see it as the shirt was ripped) and her arm, and you could see that she had multiple scratches. Her hair was out of the ponytail it started in and her posture was tired. It wasn't a very encouraging sight, as he knew who she had been searching for with her friends.

"So, what happened?" The Hokage asked gently. She sighed before scrunching up her face, looking as if she was trying to remember something, before sighing and sitting in one of the seats.

"We were searching in the forest just outside the gates. We had been following the trail for hours before we found something that could have helped. A chakra signiture, weak, but still there, and vibrations in the earth, meaning they wasn't far away. We took of after them, and caught up too them quickly. It was almost too easy, as if it were a trap - or they were careless. It was the latter, but they had a reason. When we got to where they were, they were carrying a body - the body of one of our shinobi. They caught wind of us, and we realised to late they had. Beofre we knew it we were under attack. They were good, brilliant, as much as I loath to admit. Wee injured them quite a bit, but we couldn't do much too them. We were outnimbered as well - 5 to three. They must have been Jonin level, at least. Anyway, we managed to get a look at their faces, and the fight lasted long enough to get a good knowledge of their jutsu, before they dropped the body of the shinobi and took of. We were to injured to go after them, and we had a body. So we called ANBU. When they arrived, two of them brought us back here. I volunteered to report so they could get some rest." She explained, before yawning quitely.

The Hokage couldn't keep the smile of his face at her childish gesture and snapped his fingers, summoning one of his ANBU, and told them to get Kakashi. A knock sounded on his door and he had barely said come in beofre it was thrown open and the grey-haired man rushed in, looking around wildly before his gaze landed on Nari. He ran right up to her, stopping infront of her to give her a quick assessment, before picking her up gently and hugging her to him. You could hear him murmuring '_I was so worried_' over and over, petting her hair as if to reasure himself she was still there. Pulling back slightly when Nari yawned again, Kakashi smiled and put her on his hip, before looking at the Hokage and telling the man he was going to take her home. He jumped out the window, and stuck to rooftops, only jumping down when he reached his house.

* * *

It was nearing midnight when the figure jumped through the open window. The room was dark, only lit up by the moonlight streaming through the window. The lump on the bed shifted, showing a young girls face. The figure walked towards the bed, stopping when it was close enough, and kneeling next to it. The girl shifted again, red hair fluttering down to obscure her face from the figures view. Using a hand to brush it back, he shook her shoulder gently, wanting to see her beautiful eyes that he hadn't seen in weeks. When they did open, they were foggy with sleep, but whent heyf ovused on the figures face, recgonision lighted in them. The girl shifted, sitting up slowly, and it noticed a bruise on her stomach when her shirt lifted up. It felt anger, wanting to go out and hunt those that hurt her. It was snapped out of its thoughts when arms appeared around its waist, a head burrowing into its shirt and a hand in its.  
"Itachi" the whisper was loud in the otherwise silent room, and Itachi leaned down, wrapping his arms around her waist. He picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck, head burrowing itself into his neck. He leant down and sniffed her hair, taking in her scent. It was familier, and comforting - raspberrys (from her shampoo) and the forest after rain, with the underlying scent of coconut. It was uniquely her scent, and it was something he was never likely to forget.  
"Nari" the answering whisper was just as loud in the silent room, and the girl shifted, bringing her face up to his, placing her lips on his gently, leaving them there for a few seconds before pulling back, and hugging him tighter, obviously not ready to let go just yet. He smiled slightly, and turned around, so when he sat down, it was one the edge of the bed. Her legs tightened around him slightly, before letting go and letting them hang limply around on either side of him. She moved back slighlty, knowing the drill of whenever he came to see her. Smiling once more, it was wiped of his face when he lifted her shirt and saw the giant, blue bruise going up past her ribcage, reaching her chest, and going around her back. Reaching an arm around his back, he pulled out a scroll, and unsealed from it bandages, and two pots of cream. He opened the bruise salve, and rubbed it all over her torso, before bandaging it up tightly. He did the same with the one on her arm,, bandaging from the wrist to the elbow, and the elbow to the shoulder, but rubbing the scratches with a disinfectant. Doing the same with the other arm, but only bandaging from the elbow to shoulder. He stood up then, and placed Nari on the bed, before kneeling down infront of her. She was wearing shorts, so he could see all the cuts littering the two limbs. He sighed, before grabbing the disinfectant, and running them over the cuts, deeper then the ones on Nari's arms. He stopped every now and then when she hissed slighlty, showing her discomfort. When he'd finished, and wrapped them up, he stood up again. Nari moved over, towards the wall, her back to him, and took hold of the teddy bear lying there, hugging it tightly to her chest as she waited for him to join her. He took of his clothes, turning towards a dresser beside the bed to grab a pair of pajama trousers and a t-shirt. Putting them on, he climbed into the bed, and once more wrapped his arms around Nari's waist and pulled her tightly against his chest, ready for a good nights sleep. No goodnights were exchanged, just the slight tightening of arms around her waist, and a fleeting touch on the arms protecting her, was all they needed before they both fell into a deep sleep, happy at finally being together again.

* * *

This was how Kakashi found them the next morning, Nari curled up into Itachi, Miki hugged tightly to her chest, squeezed inbetween them. It was a comforting, familiar sight, and Kakashi couldn't help the relieved sigh that came out at seeing the bandages around most of Nari's limbs. Looking at them, he couldn't help but think '_they'd make great parents . . . but not until she's 25_'. Looking at the clock, Kakashi contemplated waking them up, but they were already late enough, it being nine o' clock, and they had their first team mission. He was worried though. He knew it was an easy mission, but Nari was injured - and the scenerios playing out in his mind were not good ones.  
Trying to think postitive thoughts, Kakashi approached the bed, making as much noise as possible so that when he got round to actually shaking them, Itachi wouldn't kill him.

Kakashi walked onto the bridge two hours late, a half-asleep Naruto on his back, still covered in bandages. It wasn't a very encouraging sight that meeted them - Sasuke was glaring at nothing in paticular, a light blush on his cheeks, whilst Sakura was bright red and refused to look within a two metre radius of where Sasuke was standing. When they heard him coming, both their heads snapped up, and their gazes immediately zoomed in on Naruto, who Kakashi'd just set down, and their eyes widened when they got a good look at him.  
He was wearing a different outfit from yesterday, and he was covered in bandages. He had on a short-sleeved black t-shirt, with the pattern of a fox going up the right side. He was also wearing blue shorts that stopped just above the knees, with a black cloth wrapped around his waist. He had on black sandles and his headband was around his kneck. You could see the bandages covered all of his arm apart from the elbows, and that the bandages on his leg went all the way to his thigh.

"What happened Naruto!?" Sakura shouted, concerned no matter what she told herself. The boy in question must shrugged his shoulders, yawned, and rubbed his eyes, looking like a small child, his tiny height not helping. He leaned back on their sensei, shifting his feet and sighed, before looking up at the grey haired man, a question in his eyes.

"Ok Team 7!" Kakashi shouted enthusiastically "First mission today starts at two, so we will be training first!" To most people the excitment would seem genuine, but to those that knew him best, it was so obviously fake. "To get know your abilities, we will be sparing first, so that I can come up with a training regime. Sasuke and Sakura, you first."

As the two walked off, they could see out of the corner of their eyes their sensei look down at their obviously hurt teammate with concern in his visible eye, before picking him up and placing the blond on his hip, holding him securely but gently. They couldn't help the smiles on their lips at the blatent display of affection, but their thoughts ran wild as they tried to figure out why he would be so worried, as well as why both males had come together for the past two mornings. Shrugging it of for the moment, they got into the basic taijutsu stances, and prepared to show their sensei what they could do.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! This is a short, filler chapter, just about Iruka gatting to know the characters a bit better. Next chapter is going to be the beginning of the land of wave mission. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 7

Iruka stared at the sight that greeted him when he stepped inside the hokage's office, having been summoned by the elderly leader. He blinked once, twice, before coming to the conclusion that he was not dreaming, and took a step back, reaching out a hand, prepared to leave the office, come back back in, and find out he was hallucinating. Before he could go through with this plan, the hokage stopped him.

"Now, now Iruka, no need for that, I assure you this is all very real. And no need to draw a weapon, we are all perfectly safe." He added, seeing the chunin pull out a kunai. Smiling, and gesturing for Iruka to take a seat, the sandaime steepled his fingers, obseving the way the chunin seemed wary of one of the occupants of the room. He grinned slightly, chuckling, looking at everyone in his office.

Hinata Hyuuga lay on the couch on the right of his desk, a book held up in front of her face. Shikamaru Nara sat on a cushion on the floor beside her feet, a shogi board infront of him and a smug look on his face. Opposite him sat Ibiki Morino, also on a cushion, curses not appropriate to say infront of 11 year olds spewing from his mouth. Kakashi sat on the floor on the sandaimes left, leaning against the wall, Anko sat beside him, engaged in conversation with each other. Leaning against his oak desk was Konohamaru, fast asleep, quietly snooring. Iruka sat infront of him, on one of the plush chairs, staring around the room in wonder and worry - and slight fear whenever he looked at who was seated on the other chair less then three foot from him. Itachi Uchiha sat on that chair, his onyx eyes fixed on the book being held by the girl in his lap. His Akatsuki cloak was folded over the back of the chair. Nari sat on his lap, his arms wrapped around her waist, leaning back against his chest, holding a book in her small hands. Both of them were reading it, and occasionaly a chuckle would slip past the girls lips, and a smile - no matter how small - would appear on the stoic Uchiha. The sandaime chuckled at what was going on around him - the look on Iruka's face, the book that Itachi and Nari were reading, the bits and peices of Kakashi and Anko's conversation he could pick up on, the murmurings coming out of his grandsons mouth (something about sushi and swords) and the curses that were streaming out of the head interogaters mouth. They were like a family, his family, and the happiness that bubbled up inside him made him want to jump up and down in giddiness - which he was never going to do, no matter_ how_ happy he was.

Iruka jumped as the window behind the hokage was banged open and a man jumped inside, before nearly fainting when he saw who it was. The man was tall, with long, white hair in a spikey style. He had dark grey eyes, almost black, with two thin red lines running down his cheeks and a wart on the right side of his nose. He was wearing mesharmour underneath a green kimono shirt, with matching green trousers, with a red haori, traditional geta, and a metal plate on his forhead with the kanji 'oil' on it.  
When he walked over to Iruka, Iruka wasn't sure what he was meant to do. Beofre he could decide whether he should jump up and bow, or say 'hello' or anything, Jiraya stopped infront of Nari and Itachi and ruffled the red haired girls hair before sitting on his former sensei's desk, moving around to get comfortable. Once he was, he turned around to engage the hokage in a conversation, smiling down at Konohamaru as he turned.

Iruka couldn't help but feel slightly awkward. So when his former male turned female student turned towards him - after handing the book to Itachi - he was feeling rather grateful.

"So, Iruka-sensei, how are you?" The red head asked.

"I'm fine, thank you Nari. And you?" Iruka replied in kind.

"Great. Well, I'm kinda tired, Jiji's got me got me doing loads of missions ~ " She whined. She giggled slightly when Itachi's chest vibrated when he let out a low growl, having had a talk earlier with the sandaime about overworking Nari. "D-rank missions - which are overly boring - with Team 7, and other, tracking missions, with Hinata and Shikamaru! I mean, seriously, we do need a break sometime." She ranted, but she was smiling kindly at Iruka. "What have you been doing? You've had a few days from work because of ther graduates, haven't you?" She asked. Iruka glanced at the Uchiha whose lap she was sitting on before replying.

"Not much. I've trained a bit, done a bit of shopping, but have mostly been going over lesson plans for my new class." He replied.  
Nari watched as Iruka settled down in his chair, finally comfortable as they talked, only glancing at Itachi now and then, and smiled, pleased one of her precious people felt safe around the others.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Cherry is in position"

"Whiskers here, target spotted"

"Raven here, target verified, red ribbon on left ear"

"Good job, Team. Get the target."

Three blurs shot out of the trees, a figure following them more sedately. The blond blur scooped the cat that was in the middle of the clearing into his arms, cuddling it to his chest and cooing in its ear. The cat didn't take long to calm down, and by the time the black-haired boy walked up to the blond, the cat was purring loudly and snuggling into the chest.

"Let's go Naru. Mission accomplished!" A grey haired man said, jumping out of a cluster of trees to Naruto's right. Nodding, the blond walked of in the direction of a tower, able to be seen from where they were.

Naruto watched in disgust as the Fire Daimyo's wife hugged the yowling cat to her large chest, cooing into its ears. He sighed and glanced over at Kakashi, wondering that if he bugged his Sensei enough, he would let them get a better, higher-level mission. Glancing once more at the man who stood behind him, Naruto decided that to do so would prove frutile, and that he wasn't going to bother.

Didn't mean he couldn't complain to the Hokage though.

And complain he did.

"But, Jiji-Sama, we've been doing these missions for months~! We work well as a team as well! Why can't we have a better mission?!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head at his favourite blond genin.

"You can not have a higher ranked mission until you are all ready, Naruto!" Iruka shouted.

Naruto blocked him out as the Chunnin went on a long rant about the different ranked missions, the shinobi levels, and who does what missions.

Naru sighed and leaned back on Kakashi, wishing he was in bed asleep, or at the ramen stand eating - he was hungry, he hadn't eaten anything except an apple today, and he had only had five hours sleep last night.

Kakashi looked down at his little blond charge, also ignoring Iruka, and saw the little boy close his eyes and lean heavily on him. He glanced at the Hokage, and seeing him nod slightly, picked Naru up.

Sakura watched as Kakashi picked her blond teammate up, and couldn't stop a little jealousy from coming through as she saw how tenderly their Sensei treated Naruto.

All the Genin of team seven jumped when the door banged open, and Sakura glared when she saw team 10 coming through. Naruto's eyes snapped open, and he looked alarmed at the door, only relaxing when he saw Shikamaru come through the door in front of Asuma.

Shikamaru glanced at his small friend, and seeing him in Kakashi's tight grip, relaxed slightly, as he knew how exhausted his friend was feeling.

"Well now Iruka, I'm sure we can find something for them." The Hokage interrupted.

Naru grinned at the old man, happy he was finally going to get a good mission.

"If, that is, your willing to work with Team 10. And if you're willing to work with Team 7." He directed the last part at Team 10.

Both teams nodded vigorously, both willing to do almost anything if they got a better mission after a month of boring D-ranked missions.

Iruka gasped, shocked that the Hokage was allowing this, even though he knew they were all ready.

"Alright then. Team 7, Team 10, I know the perfect mission for you. It is an escort mission and you will be going with "

He was cut off, as Naruto bounced up and down on Kakashi's hip.

"Who will we be escorting!? A Princess? A Lord? An Actor or Actress?"

The Hokage laughed, amused at Naruto's excitement. Sakura glared at the blond, annoyed that he was so annoying. Ino looked at her fellow blond, also amused by the boy who was smaller then her.

"No, nothing like that Naruto. Please bring in Tazuna."

The two teams looked at the door as it opened, and they stared at the man who came through the doorway.

He was rather short, Kakashi and Asuma noticed. He was also rather drunk. They could all smell it, but none better then Naruto, who sneezed and buried his face in Kakashi's shoulder to block out the smell.

The man sneered.

"So these are the brats that are going to escort me?"


	9. Hiatus warning

Hey guys, sorry, not a chapter. I have decided that I have ended up writing so many stories, that I'm going to concentrate specifically on three or four stories before moving on to others.

I will first be writing;

Another Gibbs

Unforgivables Forgiven

Potter or Pevensie

and Choices and decisions.

I don't know what order I will write the other's in.

Sorry for the wait you will have for the next chapter of this story.

Sora.


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